Changing a speed camera

[trondi]

Hi

Someone has changed the speed rating of a speed camera from its proper rating of 60 mph to 30mph for a camera on my route to work. Locals are learning to ignore it but there are plenty of newcomers who obviously get the TomTom alert and slam their brakes on hard.

How can I get this dangerous situation rectified?

many thanks

 

[Andy_P]

Assuming you are using TomTom's OWN speed camera data (not the best idea....) then the only way I knew of to correct a speed camera's details in the old days was to report it had been removed and then to report it was there again, with the new details.
However the latest software includes a new "improved" camera reporting tool that ONLY lets you report the existence of a camera but not any details like speed limit.

I suggest you dump the TT alerts completely and get one of the third-party alternatives, which are much more accurate and have a much better reporting and correction process.

 

[trondi]

Okay. I had wrongly assumed that someone had mischievously dialed in some wrong data to TomTom, and that somehow and it would be just as easy to get it changed back.

Is TomTom, the company, not sensitive to the fact that their devices could be acting against road safety rather than for it?

It also never occured to me that any other camera software would be available or compatible with TomTom devices.

But thanks for your reply Andy. I suppose this new rogue camera speed will be here to stay unless anyone else has solved this particular problem before.

 

[Chris__M]

Maybe I am misunderstanding (it happens a lot), but I thought that the TomTom speed cameras didn't have a speed associated with them - that the speed displayed is the speed TomTom holds for the road it is on.

While this may seem a fine point, it means that what you need to correct isn't the speed of the camera, but the speed of the road.

TomTom seem to confirm this on their own support pages:

http://uk.support.tomtom.com/app/an...0/~/is-the-tomtom-speed-camera-service-legal?

Under "Useful Tips": "The only speed limit indicated is the one from your map. It can be incorrect if the map is too old and needs updating."

 

[Andy_P]

Maybe I am misunderstanding (it happens a lot), but I thought that the TomTom speed cameras didn't have a speed associated with them - that the speed displayed is the speed TomTom holds for the road it is on.

While this may seem a fine point, it means that what you need to correct isn't the speed of the camera, but the speed of the road.

No, that is not true at all.

The speed for the camera is definitely stored completely separately from the road speed limit.

There are at least three ways to tell:
1. Older software allowed BOTH the road speed and the camera speed to be displayed on screen at the same time. As you've seen, the speed limit for a camera is often totally wrong, but the road speed would still show correctly. On new software, you can still check what the road speed limit is by checking with a demo route or by looking at the speed for the road in MapShare corrections).
2. Several software versions have got the internal conversion from km/h to mph wrong, so UK cameras were being shown with km/h limits. However the road speed limit was still shown correctly.
3. If you look carefully on a system where the new "speed limit roundels" are always displayed, (so you don't get both road speed and camera speed displayed), when you approach a camera the graphic changes to one with a slightly larger circle.

TomTom seem to confirm this on their own support pages:

http://uk.support.tomtom.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5560/~/is-the-tomtom-speed-camera-service-legal%3F

Under "Useful Tips": "The only speed limit indicated is the one from your map. It can be incorrect if the map is too old and needs updating."

That refers ONLY to the new French "danger zones" system, not to actual camera locations in other countries.

 

[Chris__M]

Thanks for clarification, Andy. I *had* misunderstood how they were doing it.

 

[Andy_P]

No worries... When the new graphics display came in, there were absolutely no instructions from TomTom about how it all worked, so we had to work it out for ourselves. I spent quite a lot of time comparing what was shown on screen on new and old models! (Sad or what, eh?)

 

[trondi]

Yes, I too can vouch for that as the camera in question (recently down-rated to 30 mph by TomTom) is part of a double camera system, installed together about 4 or 5 years ago.

The other camera 100 yds down the road is still rated at 60 mph (as is the road),

Very odd - and dangerous, with random vehicles slamming their brakes on with no apparent reason.

 

[Andy_P]

Where is it?
I bet it's all present and correct on PGPSW's camera database.

 

[trondi]

Where is it?
I bet it's all present and correct on PGPSW's camera database.

A339 between newbury and basingstoke.